Flashback: 9-year-old girl flew across Canada this week in 1988CTV NewsThis week, in 1988, nine-year-old Emma Houlston, fresh out of Grade 3, took to the skies in a cross-Canada flight.
The Medicine Hat, Alberta, native started her journey in Victoria and ended in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, flying an average of three hours per day.
Emma was in complete control of the aircraft, with her father, Paul Houlston, a licensed flight instructor, sitting in as co-pilot in case of emergency. But it was Emma who performed all of the operations during the 24 hours of flying time in her father's Grumman AA-5 airplane.

Refreshing root beer floats will be offered to satisfy your thirst after your full day of gawping at Aviation's finest and newest products. Prizes will be raffled off with the Grand Prize of an iPAD Mini 64gb and a one year subscription to ForeFlight Canada going to one lucky winner. Special Guests are being invited and hopefully will come speak to our crowd of Canadian Aviators. Don't miss out! Mark your calendar! Attend COPA's "All Canadian Pilots Reception 2015" (spouses and friends are also invited).

See you Tuesday, July 21, between 17:30 and 19:30, under the Partner Resource Center tent on the North side of the Exhibit Hangar A. Click here for the draw form.

Take flight with COPACOPATake part in COPA's national membership campaign starting April 1, 2015, and you could win a five-day trip for two to Whitehorse in the Yukon. All you have to do is refer a new or renewing member and for every renewal your name will be entered into a draw for the grand prize.

British Columbia man flies gyrocopter 30 hours across CanadaCBC NewsTravelling across the second largest country in the world, one might think an airplane would be the best way. If sightseeing is the goal, a car might be better.
But Naramata, British Columbia, native Mark Humbke, decided he'd like to do it in a gyrocopter.
"It's sort a cross between a helicopter and an airplane," he told Daybreak South's Chris Walker.
Humbke says he ordered the flying machine from a dealer in Quebec, where he boarded a commercial flight to to pick it up.

Tiger Moths fly againPrince Albert Daily HeraldA once familiar sight in the skies above Prince Albert is back for the 2015 Prairie Heritage Airshow Society AirFair.
During the Second World War, dozens of 82C Tiger Moths were used as commonwealth pilots began their training across Saskatchewan.
This year, thanks to the Saskatchewan Aviation Historical Society, one has made its way back north.
"They're very historic, especially in Saskatchewan," SAHS executive director Tim Munro said.

Lady pilots finish Air Race Classic strongSentinel-StandardTwo women placed in the top half of a cross-country small airplane race, and in the process received a prize for flying one of the fastest legs in the contest.
Ionia County Airport Assistant Manager and pilot, Maggie Wint along with co-pilot Hellen Hagg, flew a 1970 Cessna Cardinal in the all-women Air Race Classic, an event that traces it's roots back to a 1920's contest that featured Amelia Earhart.
Wint said they both had a good time meeting people from all around the world who competed in the race. There were teams from across the United States as well as from Canada and New Zealand in the competition.

Ridge Landing Airpark is the premier aviation community in Central Florida. Pilots have exclusive access to a gated and secured residential airpark featuring a 3000’ X 60’ (914m X 18m) paved and lit runway.We have a broad background in real estate and we see how the pieces should be put together.

Learning to fly does not have to be difficult, or expensive. And it's almost never too late (or early for that matter) to become skilled in the safe operation of an aircraft.
You can be licensed to fly in a matter of months, if not weeks of applied study and air exercise.

Skybound with Canada's SnowbirdsThe StarPhoenix"You have the controls."
When you're buzzing over the Saskatchewan countryside and your pilot tells you these words, you don't hesitate. You take the throttle and joystick in your hands, convince yourself that wings aren't so different from tires and respond as instructed.
"I have the controls."

The perfect storm for a pilot shortage: Part IIIBy Mark Huber The declining number of retired military pilots entering civil aviation, coupled with the potentially-crippling proposed limits on the use of Veterans Administration educational benefits for civil flight training, promises to place more pressure than ever on civilian-track students to fill an emerging pilot shortage, including for helicopter EMS. But given the high cost of helicopter training and a lack of affordable student loans to finance it, will enough people choose helicopter flying as a career?

What we look at when we look at airplane picturesFLYINGAccording to author Robert Goyer: I've been thinking a lot lately about images of airplanes. It's a subject that pilots like us hold dear. It's hard to explain to a non-pilot, but there's something, and I hate to use this word, "magical" about certain photographs — a thousand-shades-of-gray image of a lonely straight-tail Skylane thousands of feet above a patchwork of farmer's fields below; a red-and-white Super Cub banking around a rugged outcropping and aiming for a tiny mountain clearing strip; a stately bizjet churning giant vortices behind as it tops a cloud deck.

The surprising zen of a 5-day flight over the PacificWIREDYou'd think anyone who spent 118 hours alone in a space the size of a refrigerator would go absolutely crazy. Not André Borschberg. The Swiss pilot just crossed the Pacific in a solar plane with a cockpit so small he couldn't stand, let alone walk around. And he loved it.
Flying over so vast an expanse of sea, with no landmarks, was oddly soothing, he said. He felt utterly at peace. Everything — flying, sleeping, preparing his meals — was contemplative.

Did Duwal beat Airbus across the English Channel?AVwebJust as Airbus was completing plans for its successful crossing of the English Channel in an electric airplane, it appears as though it got beat to the punch by Hugues Duwal flying an electric powered CRI-CRI Cristaline twin. Duwal completed the flight recently, even though authorities attempted to block it, according to Pipistrel's Ivo Bocarol.

Couple gets wed in planeGeneral Aviation News"My husband and I decided that since we were involved in general aviation so much while we were dating, it would only be fitting to get married doing what we truly love," started Aliece Dice's email to me in response to her reading about the couple who used SocialFlight to invite guests to their wedding. "We decided early on in our engagement to either get married in an airplane hangar or in the air."

Bob Quinn airstrip shut downTerrace StandardThe non-profit society running a gravel airstrip at Bob Quinn Lake along Hwy37 North in northwestern British Columbia was closed on June 30. The society hasn't qualified for any type of government assistance over the years and it's never been able to develop a dependable and consistent income based on industrial use, says Keith Routley from the Bob Quinn Lake Airport Society. And now with repairs needed to a portion of the 4,000-foot long strip, the society doesn't have the money for the work, he said.